“The Stone City:” New York in Joyce Johnson’s Come and Join the Dance
“The Stone City:” New York in Joyce Johnson’s Come and Join the Dance

Summary/Abstract: Joyce Johnson’s Come and Join the Dance (1961) presents the Beat context in New York, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, through a roman à clef style. While Susan, the main character, goes through different stages in her development, her perspective on the city seems to change as well. The mental maps depicted in the text offer the reader the impression that New York doesn’t only serve as the place of the action but also contributes to the storyline as a character. Joyce Johnson portrays New York as a Beat epicenter, from the perspective of both the writer and the activist. The novel outlines the image of the Beat community and focuses on women’s status in the metropolis during the post-war period. The novel offers a voice to many others that may relate to Susan’s experience as a struggling young female writer, while facing the societal norms at the time. This paper follows spaces and places used in the text, that create a map of protest of Johnson’s New York City.

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